Friday, 29 May 2009

Police probing a £50million-plus fund management fraud centered around three disgraced financial institutions made dawn raids in London and Surrey resulting in the arrests of two suspects.

The companies : Business Consulting International (BCI) of 1 Relton Mews, Knightsbridge; John Anderson Consulting and Kenneth Peacock Consulting had their operations frozen by the Financial Services Authority last year and police called in.

City of London Police probing the alleged mishandling of millions of pounds of investors funds made the early morning swoops on three addresses and arrested a 40 year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and fraud by misrepresentation.

A 43 year-old man later surrendered himself to a police station within the square mile and was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and fraud by misrepresentation.

The FSA has also issued proceedings against three individuals linked to the consultancies for allegedly taking unlawful deposits and running an unauthorised collective investment scheme.

Det Insp David Manley, from the City of London Police, said: "We are working in partnership with the FSA to tackle this complex investment fraud that involves hundreds of victims and losses suspected to run into tens of millions of pounds.

"It is vitally important for people who have been involved with, or suspect they could be a victim of BCI, John Anderson Consulting and Kenneth Peacock Consulting to contact the City of London Police as soon as possible.

At this early stage, we would like to speak to as many of the investors as possible to maximize the opportunities for gathering evidence to provide a clearer picture to the investigation team."

Jonathan Phelan, Head of Enforcement at the FSA, said: "We are working closely with the police to help investors who might have been victims of this alleged large scale fraud. Anyone who has been in contact with these companies should get in touch with the police."